Good Tuesday morning. TOP STORY: The White House began putting out word at 9:02 p.m. that the president will reappoint Ben Shalom Bernanke today to a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

John Harwood, on CNBC's "Squawk Box": "You've got a White House that is now under siege for its health care plan, for the level of unemployment, for the questions about whether big government is coming back. And by appointing a Republican to continue as the head of the Federal Reserve —somebody who does have the confidence of the markets — the administration [is making] somewhat of a centrist move, a stability move, a continuity move. And it also enables the administration to make the case that this appointment shows that they are confident that both the Fed strategy and the administration's economic strategy are working, now that we see some signs — preliminarily — of a return to growth in the economy, even though unemployment remains high."

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From the president’s prepared remarks for their joint appearance, scheduled for 9 a.m. at the press filing center at Oak Bluffs School on Martha's Vineyard:

“The man next to me, Ben Bernanke, has led the Fed through the one of the worst financial crises that this nation and this world have ever faced. As an expert on the causes of the Great Depression, I’m sure Ben never imagined that he would be part of a team responsible for preventing another. But because of his background, his temperament, his courage, and his creativity, that’s exactly what he has helped to achieve. And that is why I am re-appointing him to another term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. Ben approached a financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom; with bold action and outside-the-box thinking that has helped put the brakes on our economic freefall.

“Almost none of the decisions he or any of us made have been easy. The actions we have taken to stabilize our financial system, repair our credit markets, restructure auto industry, and help the overall economy recover have all been steps of necessity, not choice. They have faced plenty of critics, some of whom argued that we should stay the course or do nothing at all. But taken together, all of these steps have brought our economy back from the brink. They are steps that are working. Our recovery plan has put tax cuts in people’s pockets, provided health care and unemployment insurance to those who have borne the brunt of this recession, and is continuing to save and create jobs that otherwise would have been lost. Our auto industry is showing signs of life. Business investment is showing signs of stabilizing. Our housing market and credit markets have been saved from collapse.”

REACTION ON CNBC at 8 a.m.: Rob Nichols, president and COO of the Financial Services Forum, which represents the CEOs of 17 of the country’s largest financial services. Rob iPhones us: “Our nation is fortunate to have Bernanke's continuing leadership during this historic economic turmoil.”

THE BACKSTORY — WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath, David Wessel and Sudeep Reddy: “The president called the Fed chairman to the Oval Office this past Wednesday to offer him another four-year term. … White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said the president credits Mr. Bernanke for ‘pulling the economy back from the brink of depression.’ … Wall Street and academic economists in recent weeks showed enthusiasm for giving Mr. Bernanke a second term, and some administration insiders felt similarly even though Mr. Bernanke was appointed by — and served in the White House of — President George W. Bush. Appointing a Democrat such as Janet Yellen, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, or Alan Blinder, former Fed vice chairman — both former advisers to President Bill Clinton — would have been popular with many Democrats. But a move by Mr. Obama to install his own person at the Fed might have rattled markets and unsettled the foreign investors. …

“While the markets are likely to cheer the move on Tuesday, reappointment will likely come only after sharp skirmishes on Capitol Hill. Some critics say Mr. Bernanke was too slow to recognize the severity of the crisis. … Hearings on the rescues of firms such as Bank of America and AIG have placed Mr. Bernanke and other Fed officials face-to-face with acrimony that is uncommon when central-bank officials testify before Congress. … White House officials, after weighing the alternatives, decided there were no better options. Several options were on the table, including naming Mr. Obama's top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, as Fed chief. Mr. Summers, the gruff, brilliant economist and former Treasury Department secretary, would likely have run up against resistance on Capitol Hill, too. … The big challenge for Mr. Bernanke in the year ahead will be to decide when to start raising short-term interest rates from near zero. The Fed has signaled rates will stay low for an extended period. Most economist don't believe the Fed will move until the middle of next year. When it does happen, it is bound to be an unpopular move. Mr. Bernanke also must work with Congress, where the Obama administration's plan to overhaul financial market regulation is moving slowly.”

NYT’s Edmund L. Andrews: “White House officials said that Mr. Obama had effectively decided four or five weeks ago that he wanted Mr. Bernanke to continue, and that he formally discussed the job with him last week at a meeting with the Fed chairman in the White House.”

Tony Fratto, Treasury and White House official under President Bush, writing at his website The Roosevelt Room: “Obama made the only choice he could make. Economic historians will look back on Bernanke’s record in the lead up to the financial crisis and the extraordinary actions he took during the financial crisis. Whatever faults they may find, they will have to conclude that Bernanke’s actions prevented the collapse of our financial system.”

— NYT lead, “Investigation Is Ordered Into C.I.A. Abuse Charges: Federal Prosecutor Named as New Details of Interrogations Are Released.” Also on A1: “Giuliani, Seeing Opening, Mulls A Governor Bid.” Business Day dress page: “Obama to Nominate Bernanke to Continue Role as Fed Chief.”

— WashPost lead, “Bernanke to Be Reappointed As Fed Chairman.” Off-lead: “CIA Report Calls Oversight Of Early Interrogations Poor.” Also on A1: “Swine Flu Could Infect Half of U.S.”

— L.A. Times lead, “Holder opens inquiry of CIA interrogations.” Off-lead: “Bernanke to be nominated for a second term.”

— WashTimes lead: “Interrogators got results, could face charges.”

SHREWD TIMING — The Bernanke announcement fills the news vacuum — correctly feared by White Houses — that forms when the president is out of public view for several days running. And it deflates the 9:30 a.m. release of an alarming new deficit projection — $9 trillion over 10 years — in the White House Office of Management and Budget’s “Mid-Session Review of the Budget of the U.S. Government for FY 2010.” PoliticsDaily’s Jill Lawrence writes this morning, in a column called,: “The Skyrocketing Deficit: How Scared Should We Be?,” that the Bernanke announcement was “no doubt meant to divert us from those large, unpleasant numbers. But they are not so easily buried. … [L]ooking at these numbers feel a bit like looking straight down just before the roller coaster plunges.”

DUELING FORECASTS — TO BE POSTED AT 10 a.m. at: The Congressional Budget Office’s “summer update to the Budget and Economic Outlook,” followed by an 11 a.m. pen-and-pad with CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf.

SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN CHRIS DODD (D-Conn.), who will chair the confirmation hearing: “While I have had serious differences with the Federal Reserve over the past few years, I think reappointing Chairman Bernanke is probably the right choice. Chairman Bernanke was too slow to act during the early stages of the foreclosure crisis, but he ultimately demonstrated effective leadership and his reappointment sends the right signal to the markets. There will be a thorough and comprehensive confirmation hearing. I still have serious concerns about the Federal Reserve’s failure to protect consumers and I strongly believe these responsibilities should go to an independent consumer financial protection agency. I expect many serious questions will be raised about the role of the Federal Reserve moving forward, and what authorities it should and should not have.”

“RECESS ROASTINGS”: The National Republican Congressional Committee’s header on e-mails covering the town halls of House Democrats.

**A message from AFSCME’s Highway 2 Healthcare Tour: AFSCME Rocks and Rolls for Reform during August Recess. For a tour schedule, go to www.Highway2Healthcare.com. **

TOP BUZZ: “AP Source: Michael Jackson’s death ruled homicide … The Los Angeles County coroner's finding that the death of Michael Jackson was a homicide could mean criminal charges for his doctor, who told investigators that he administered a mix of powerful drugs to treat the pop star's insomnia hours before his death.”

TOP TALKER — WIKIPEDIA TO LIMIT CHANGES TO ARTICLES ON PEOPLE — N.Y. Times Business front, “New Rules In Wiki World: Seeking Accuracy, Online Encyclopedia Will Set a Hierarchy of Edit Approval,” by Noam Cohen: “Officials at the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit in San Francisco that governs Wikipedia, say that within weeks, the English-language Wikipedia will begin imposing a layer of editorial review on articles about living people. The new feature, called ‘flagged revisions,’ will require that an experienced volunteer editor for Wikipedia sign off on any change made by the public before it can go live. Until the change is approved — or in Wikispeak, flagged — it will sit invisibly on Wikipedia’s servers, and visitors will be directed to the earlier version. The change is part of a growing realization on the part of Wikipedia’s leaders that as the site grows more influential, they must transform its embrace-the-chaos culture into something more mature and dependable. Roughly 60 million Americans visit Wikipedia every month. It is the first reference point for many Web inquiries — not least because its pages often lead the search results on Google, Yahoo and Bing. Since Michael Jackson died on June 25, for example, the Wikipedia article about him has been viewed more than 30 million times, with 6 million of those in the first 24 hours. …

"The new editing procedures, which have been applied to the entire German-language version of Wikipedia during the last year, are certain to be a topic of discussion this week when Wikipedia’s volunteer editors gather in Buenos Aires for their annual Wikimania conference. Much of the agenda is focused on the implications of the encyclopedia’s size and influence. Although Wikipedia has prevented anonymous users from creating new articles for several years now, the new flagging system crosses a psychological Rubicon. It will divide Wikipedia’s contributors into two classes — experienced, trusted editors, and everyone else — altering Wikipedia’s implicit notion that everyone has an equal right to edit entries. … Under the current system, it is not difficult to insert false information into a Wikipedia entry, at least for a short time. … Exactly who will have flagging privileges has not yet been determined, but the editors will number in the thousands, Wikipedia officials say. With German Wikipedia, nearly 7,500 people have the right to approve a change. The English version, which has more than three times as many articles, would presumably need even more editors to ensure that changes do not languish before approval.”

SHOT — BILL BURTON, opening yesterday’s first Martha’s Vineyard briefing: “I think we're going to call this Martha's File Center. I like it. A little warm. But the President has enjoyed the hospitality of the folks here in Martha's Vineyard and has, so far, hung out last night at the house, had dinner with Valerie Jarrett and her daughter, and the Whitakers came over. This morning the President worked out. He played some tennis with the First Lady, is going to hit the links today … And here's what's on the reading list, because I know that some folks have been asking — it's long: ‘The Way Home,’ by George Pelecanos; Tom Friedman's ‘Hot, Flat and Crowded’; Richard Price's ‘Lush Life’; Kent Haruf's ‘Plainsong’; and ‘John Adams’ by David McCullough.”

CHASER — The Daily Beast’s Samuel P. Jacobs: “What to make of this strange annual presidential ritual? … Obama’s spokesman told reporters Monday from Martha’s Vineyard that No. 2 on the president’s list was Tom Friedman’s environmental bestseller ‘Hot, Flat, and Crowded.’ The only problem? Obama was reading the same book, talking about it, even quoting from it a year ago on the campaign trail. At an event in Flint, Michigan, last September, the Washington Independent noted that [Obama had told the community-college crowd that] the book was ‘on his nightstand.’ The then-presidential candidate tried to refute the arguments of the ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ crowd by touting Friedman’s environmental bestseller. ‘He calls it E.T., energy technology,’ Obama said of Friedman. For Obama, Friedman’s book has apparently become a renewable resource.

“The New York Times columnist told The Daily Beast that he wouldn’t be surprised if Obama did some skimming the first time around. ‘Given the pressure of a campaign, I doubt that the president got to read anything cover to cover,’ he said in an e-mail. ‘And for most of his presidency, the Great Recession has really swamped debate and discussion about climate and energy. So, I was very pleased to hear that he is diving into it again. I suspect that if the economy continues to stabilize, and if some kind of health insurance package is put together, the president will be turning back to his energy/environment agenda with gusto in the coming year.’”

AP’s PHILIP ELLIOTT: “Obama … played golf with UBS Investment Bank President Robert Wolf and Chicago physician Eric Whitaker, both friends. White House aide Marvin Nicholson was also in the foursome.”

DETENTION, INTERROGATION:

—POLITICO’s Ben Smith: “How much does the administration want to talk about torture? So much that they've timed a flood of announcements for ... Obama's vacation.”

—NSC TO OVERSEE NEW INTERROGATION TASK FORCE — WSJ’s Siobhan Gorman: “President Obama will establish a new interrogation program for high-value detainees, creating a team of trained interrogators drawing from law enforcement, intelligence, and military agencies, according to an administration official. The High Value Detainee Interrogation Group will adhere to the 19 techniques outlined in the Army Field manual, but the new unit will also launch a scientific research program that will study the effectiveness of the existing techniques and also develop new lawful techniques to improve the yield from interrogations. Housed at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the elite unit will include specialists in relevant subject areas, languages, and other intelligence personnel from across the government. The unit will deploy mobile teams to interrogate top terrorist suspects, and its focus will be intelligence gathering as opposed to evidence collection for future prosecutions. The White House's National Security Council will oversee the unit, the official said.”

—POLITICO’s Josh Gerstein: “Justice to probe alleged CIA abuse: Attorney General Eric Holder has named a federal prosecutor to examine alleged CIA interrogation abuses — a move that could lead to the criminal prosecution of CIA officers and contractors and is sure rekindle the debate over how far the United States should go to get information from terror suspects. Holder’s decision to assign the inquiry to a seasoned career prosecutor, John Durham of Connecticut, comes after the Justice Department’s ethics office recommended reopening about a dozen cases of prisoner abuse. Aides said Holder himself was so troubled by some of the reports that he felt a prosecutor might be needed — even though the move is likely to be viewed by the White House as an unwelcome distraction. … Holder suggested Monday that he was duty bound to refer the issues for further examination. …

“Holder said ‘the information known to me’ warrants opening a preliminary investigation. But he stressed that ‘neither the opening of a preliminary review nor, if evidence warrants it, the commencement of a full investigation, means that charges will necessarily follow.’ Durham is already pursuing an inquiry left over from the Bush administration into the CIA’s destruction of videotapes of interrogations of high-level operatives. Holder suggested Durham was the most efficient course of action, since he and his aides have the proper security clearances and know the ropes at the CIA. ‘During the course of that investigation, Mr. Durham has gained great familiarity with much of the information that is relevant to the matter at hand,’ the attorney general said. The news of the inquiry into past interrogations came as the Justice Department released a CIA Inspector General report from 2004 that details some of the most extreme interrogation techniques used under the Bush administration, including the use of a mock execution and a power drill to intimidate Al Qaeda operatives.

—ROBERT GIBBS statement “on the Department of Justice Inquiry”: “The president has said repeatedly that he wants to look forward, not back, and the president agrees with the attorney general that those who acted in good faith and within the scope of legal guidance should not be prosecuted. Ultimately, determinations about whether someone broke the law are made independently by the attorney general.”

--CIA DIRECTOR LEON PANETTA, in a note to the agency’s workforce that was released by his aides: “Message from the Director: Release of Material on Past Detention Practices … My emphasis on the future comes with a clear recognition that our agency takes seriously proper accountability for the past. As the intelligence service of a democracy, that’s an important part of who we are. … The CIA must … keep its focus on the primary responsibility of protecting the country. America is a nation at war. This agency plays a decisive role in helping the United States meet the full range of security threats and opportunities overseas. That starts with the continuing fight against al-Qa’ida and its sympathizers. There, alongside all its other contributions, the CIA is helping our government chart a new way forward on interrogation, one in keeping with the president’s Executive Order of January 22nd. You, the men and women of this great institution, do the hard work and take the tough risks that intelligence and espionage demand.”

—Statement by former Vice President Cheney: “The documents released Monday clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda. This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks. These detainees also, according to the documents, played a role in nearly every capture of al Qaeda members and associates since 2002. The activities of the CIA in carrying out the policies of the Bush administration were directly responsible for defeating all efforts by al Qaeda to launch further mass casualty attacks against the United States. The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions. President Obama’s decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate and possibly prosecute CIA personnel, and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the CIA to the White House, serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this administration’s ability to be responsible for our nation’s security.”

—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called it “a poor and misguided decision”: “Several years ago, career professionals at the Department decided the facts did not support prosecuting America’s intelligence professionals based on the practices at issue today. Now, the administration risks chilling our defense and intelligence community’s ability to protect us from future terrorist attacks by reopening this matter. If these reports are true, the American people will be rightly outraged by the administration’s actions in this critical area.”

—MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow: “[W]e begin tonight with the release of what’s been called the big kahuna on this show, a 2004 CIA report detailing abusive interrogation techniques, including torture against prisoners in U.S. custody. The heavily anticipated report was finally made public today after months of delay and the details are significant and kind of gross. The now declassified report is still extremely redacted. So, large portions look something like this. But the pages that are not redacted, well, they detail incidents that are previewed in the report’s table of contents, with sections including handgun and power drills, threats, smoke, and mock executions. What follows are fairly startling accounts of unauthorized interrogation techniques that were used by CIA interrogators — often without the approval of anyone in Washington. Today, we learned where executive approval for that waterboarding came from, quote, ‘According to the CIA General Counsel, the attorney general acknowledged he is fully aware of the repetitive use of the waterboard and that CIA is well within the scope of the DOJ opinion that the authority given to CIA by that opinion. The attorney general was informed the waterboard had been used 119 times on a single individual.’ The attorney general at the time was John Ashcroft.”

— L.A. Times A1, “News Analysis: Looking back is now part of Obama’s future,” by Christi Parsons and Julian E. Barnes: “In naming a special prosecutor to investigate the CIA's use of harsh interrogation tactics, the Obama administration has plunged into just the kind of controversy it said it wanted to avoid — a polarizing, backward-looking fight over issues far removed from the president's top priorities. At a time when healthcare and other signature initiatives are in trouble on Capitol Hill and President Obama's approval ratings are slipping, he now faces the prospect of a long, distracting probe into policies of the Bush administration — policies Obama has already denounced. And the furor is likely to be all the sharper because it pits the most liberal elements of Obama's base against the most unyielding elements of the Republican right. … Obama came into office hoping to put healthcare, energy and other domestic policy issues at the top of his agenda. He sought to avoid delving into the perceived excesses of the Bush administration's prosecution of the war on terrorism, including the Abu Ghraib abuses in Iraq and allegations of torture elsewhere. Early on, he signaled that intent by refusing to release photographs of CIA interrogations. But in doing so, he disappointed his liberal base, and created a political dilemma. Obama cannot afford to lose the enthusiastic efforts of his staunchest supporters — most of them liberal. They are crucial to the success of the neighborhood-level organization the White House hopes to mobilize for its domestic agenda and build into a permanent, policy-focused fighting force. At the same time, Obama cannot afford a decline in support from independent voters, who polls show were already registering misgivings about the president. Those voters were crucial to his election victory.”

SPOTTED: Anna Karl, 9, making a diving catch for the projectile from a T-shirt gun at last night’s Nats-Brewers game. When you take the rubber bands off, it reads: “Hit Me With Your Best Shirt.”

WEST WING MUST-READ: Boston Globe A1, “Frank focused on reshaping US finance: Congressman relishing pivotal role in overhaul,” by Sasha Issenberg: “NEW BEDFORD — US Representative Barney Frank became a YouTube star last week after a town-hall meeting in which he likened a constituent to household furniture, but much of his summer has been spent in uncommon quietude. As chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank is busy assembling a complex bill to give the federal government unprecedented control over the country’s financial institutions. It is as ambitious as any legislation jolting town halls and cable-news programs, and one that calls upon Frank’s lesser-known skills: discreet negotiation instead of the impatient insult showcased last Tuesday night in Dartmouth, when he belittled a woman who accused him of supporting a ‘Nazi policy’ on health care. A few days earlier, Frank lamented that voters had yet to be as engaged by the debate over new proposals intended to help avoid the kind of Wall Street risk-taking that pulled down the banking system and drove the country into recession. ‘It’s been eclipsed obviously in the public’s mind by health care, which I am troubled by a little bit, to be honest with you,’ Frank said during an extensive interview in his district office in downtown New Bedford. ‘It’s intellectually complex. Politically it’s like five Rubik’s cubes trying to keep the members happy.’ …

“When Congress returns to session after Labor Day, Frank expects to chair a series of hearings and markup sessions that he hopes will generate a single comprehensive bill on financial reform for a vote in the House. … Hedge funds and derivatives traders would have to operate under new limits. A financial products safety commission would regulate the consumer marketplace, down to payday loans and check-cashing stores. Federal officials would gain new powers to unwind failed financial institutions. In addition, Frank hopes to secure congressional auditing authority over the secretive Federal Reserve, a proposal he describes with phrases —‘Ron Paul agrees with that’’ and ‘secondly, Ron Paul agrees with this’ — that are jarring coming from a liberal Democrat. ‘I am boasting about this,’ said Frank. ‘Being chairman of the committee is different than being an individual member. Your job is to try to get public policy that is going to be workable.’

“Since Obama unveiled his reforms in June and asked that Congress have them ready for his signature by year’s end, administration figures have complained about the languid legislative pace. Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner lashed out at a gathering of federal regulators who he said were slowing the bill’s progress with skeptical comments about a proposal to establish a new authority to monitor investment risk. … ‘They don’t want to lose their control,’ said Frank. ‘What a surprise: Regulators don’t want to lose turf.’ Openly contemptuous of Obama’s constant references to bipartisanship, Frank probably has the votes to pass the bill out of his committee without support from Republicans. A similar bill coming out of the Senate will probably be drafted with more Republican input; negotiators will eventually have to merge the two. … Frank has raised more than $750,000 on his own behalf so far this year and has given the bulk to other Democratic campaign committees. Approximately $100,000 of it comes from insurance and finance interests, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, but Frank discounts the idea the money has any influence on his work. ‘In the area that we work in, it’s not campaign contributions that drive it — it’s votes,’ he said. ‘The most important influences are the credit unions, the realtors, the community banks — because there are many of them in everybody’s district.’”

THE VICE PRESIDENT’S DAY: “The Vice President will be in Washington, DC. In the morning, the vice president will receive the Presidential Daily Briefing and meet with senior staff. At 1:00 PM EDT, the vice president will receive a health insurance reform update from Nancy Ann DeParle, Director of the White House Office of Health Reform. At 3:00 PM EDT, the vice president will host a conference call with Tribal leaders to discuss the Recovery Act. This call is closed press. The vice president will spend the remainder of the day in meetings.”

POLITICO WELCOMES LAURA ROZEN: “Laura Rozen is joining POLITICO as a reporter covering foreign policy. She’ll maintain a reported foreign policy news blog for us but also do more long-form pieces for both the Web and the paper. Laura comes to us from Foreign Policy magazine, where her web column, ‘The Cable,’ has become a daily must-read for the Washington foreign policy community and beyond. She plans to deepen that coverage at POLITICO, honing in on foreign policy makers at the State Department, NSC and White House, the Hill, embassies and think tanks ... Among the pieces Laura has done that have had lasting resonance in Washington and in capitals abroad: an interview with Gen. Anthony Zinni in which he complained in wonderfully frank language about thinking he had been offered the Iraq ambassador job only to find it wasn't his after all; one of the first stories — ‘Revisiting Riyadh’ — examining in depth how President Obama’s meeting with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh in June had gone; and a recent interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in which Clinton rebutted chatter that she had a diminished role in the Obama administration. … Before joining Foreign Policy, Laura has reported for The Washington Monthly, The American Prospect and Mother Jones. … Before coming to Washington in 2001, Laura spent four years reporting as a freelance journalist based in the Balkans and Turkey, and earlier spent two years in Russia. A native of Kansas City, she lives in Washington with her husband and daughter. Laura should be in the office starting after Labor Day.”

BUSINESS BURST — The (London) Times, front-page tease: “Hopes grew for a rapid recovery after the biggest rally in world share prices for 50 years. The FTSE index has risen by 40 per cent since March, ending the day at 4,896. Worldwide markets have risen by £7.6 trillion in five months.”

—Bloomberg News “Apple Highest Grossing Retailer on Fifth Avenue as Crowds Swell: As vacancies increase and retail sales throughout the U.S. remain a shadow of the decade’s boom, Apple Inc.’s stores are defying the recession. … Apple’s store performance in the last year has been driven by the iPhone, according to Charlie Wolf, an analyst who covers Apple at Needham & Co. in New York. The retail operation saw a 22 percent increase in traffic during the quarter ended June 27, hosting a total of 38.6 million visitors, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said on a conference call in July. … Apple’s Fifth Avenue emporium probably has annual sales of more than $350 million, topping any of the chain’s other outlets, said Jeffrey Roseman, executive vice president of real- estate broker Newmark Knight Frank Retail in New York. The location is 10,000 square feet, putting its sales per square foot at a minimum of $35,000, based on Roseman’s estimate. That’s the equivalent of selling one Mercedes-Benz C300 sedan per square foot.” (h/t Rob Hoppin)

SPORTS BLINK — ESPN.com: Former New York Giants receiver “Plaxico Burress said security at a New York nightclub knew he had a gun on the night he accidentally shot himself while walking up the stairs in November 2008. That gunshot landed him in jail for two years after a guilty plea last week. Burress, spoke for the first time publicly in an interview with ESPN E:60 correspondent Jeremy Schaap on Monday afternoon in Florida. The complete interview is scheduled to air Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET (ESPN). Burress said that security at the Latin Quarter nightclub knew he was carrying a gun. ‘It wasn't like I was trying to hide it,’ Burress said. He said he was in the club for about five minutes before club personnel asked him if he wanted to go to an upstairs room to ‘relax.’ As he was walking upstairs, Burress said he missed a step while walking and the gun began to slide down his pant leg. Burress said he reached to stop it from hitting the ground when he accidentally pulled the trigger through his pants. ‘My finger hit, like, right on the trigger,’ he said. ‘What are the odds on that happening?’ He said he didn't realize he was shot until he noticed that his shoes were red with blood. He said nobody heard the gunshot. He told teammate Antonio Pierce to take him to the hospital. ‘I never even made it up to the VIP room,’ he said. He said he was wearing black jeans, not sweatpants as earlier reported. He said he was wearing a sweatshirt. Schaap asked Burress why he didn't have a holster. ‘Bad judgment,’ Burress said.”

DESSERT — AP: “David Letterman, who called himself a ‘dope’ who doesn't know anything about fashion, flashed a view of his gray stockings and invited [Vogue editor Anna ] Wintour to ‘take a look at those, honey.’ Wintour, making her first appearance on CBS' ‘Late Show,’ is featured in the new documentary ‘The September Issue’ about production of the 2007 issue that — arriving before the recession — was the biggest in Vogue's 117-year history. The magazine editor made light of her image as an imperious and tough boss, but acknowledged that she is direct with her staff. ‘Well, I'm very decisive and I try and give very clear direction to the people that I'm working with, and sometimes, unfortunately, they don't hear the answer that they would like to hear,’ Wintour said … She waved away the notion that she was the model for the cold, driven editor played by Meryl Streep in ‘The Devil Wears Prada,’ noting that Miranda Priestly was part of a fictional tale. The September issue, which Wintour called the fashion industry's benchmark, comes at the start of the fall fashion season and is particularly important during the industry's ‘challenging time,’ she said.”

** The AFSCME Highway to Health Care Reform RV will travel through key states mobilizing the public to contact their members of Congress to demand real reform — reform that guarantees quality, affordable health care for all. The Highway to Health Care Reform tour is part of the union’s unprecedented $6 million Make America Happen campaign, which includes ads, canvassing, phone calls, online activities and the deployment of dozens of campaign field organizers to key states in support of President Obama’s efforts to win real health care reform this year. Check out the tour schedule at www.Highway2Healthcare.com.**

****** A message from UnitedHealth Group: What does it take to create a modern, high-performing, simpler health care system? Expanding access to care through proven state-based coverage and employer-sponsored insurance. Making health care more affordable with consumer-directed care and value-based payments. Supporting and modernizing Medicare to meet the complex health challenges of America’s seniors. And reinvesting in health to support research and innovation. Learn more about these ideas at http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com ******

Authors:

About The Author

Mike Allen is the chief White House correspondent for POLITICO. He comes to us from Time magazine where he was their White House correspondent. Prior to that, Allen spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President Bush's first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the Bush, Gore and Bradley campaigns of 2000. Before turning to national politics, he covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Va., for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse and the wacky rich of Greenwich for The New York Times. Before moving to The Times, he did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post. Allen grew up in Orange County, Calif., and has a B.A. from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in politics and journalism.